I have been working with computer design applications since around 1987. The first program that I used was Deluxe Paint II. This was an awesome application if anyone remembers. You could do almost anything, vector, animation, rendering, and many other tricks. The resolution was not that great however the applications seemed to combine several different things. Now, it seems that Photoshop has become the all use application as well. Don’t get me wrong, PhotoShop cannot do all of the things that the other applications such as Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver can do, however PhotoShop CS4 is indeed very versatile. One new thing ability that was added to PhotoShop CS4 was the ability to move your files around the clipboard area as well as have them tabbed across the top. This was such a huge improvement, especially for the designer that needs to move layer groups from one file to another with ease. The tabbed file browsing is much similar looking to what a browser such as Firefox or Chrome does. When you open a new file it is just added to the top as a tab. When you minimize the tab it will float on top of your other tabbed files. The benefit of this is that you can have a file open and compare is with your file behind. The file behind will not move forward when you have a floating file in front of it. In previous versions of PhotoShop, this was the case, since every file was based on being stacked. Previously, you would have to open up the two different files and re-size them to compare and drag and drop layers. This new file browsing has really helped my work flow, especially when moving very large layer groups from one file to the other. It also helps if you have a widescreen monitor or dual screens.
How has PhotoShop CS4 helped you? I would love to hear!
